One of the very first teas I ever had as a kid (my mom liked it as an iced tea, for reasons I can't reckon aside from inexpensive price), somehow Lipton's flagship black has managed to avoid my first 67 ratings. How can a tea I've swallowed off and on for decades be so forgettable?

This tea is alarmingly ubiquitous—available in seemingly every supermarket, convenience store, breakfast cafe, pancake house, donut shop, motel, hotel, all-night diner, all-day diner, dive bar, workplace hot-beverage dispensary, convention hall, college cafeteria, tourist trap's tea table, and as the default "hot tea" in restaurants of every price point, all across this vast land and beyond. I can't testify first-hand, but I'm told it's even served in Nevada brothels.

Unfortunately it's the only "hot tea" at all offered in most of the above. I say "unfortunately" because the taste strikes me as bland, ordinary, boring...without any essences of anything but commercial-grade orange pekoe shredded nearly to dust, then bagged. It's as plain as can be—not revolting or even a major turn-off per se, indeed it's tolerable, and one can do worse. Still, the flavor doesn't stand out except in its flatness, about as interesting as watching grass grow. It's also a step down from what can be a rather rich aroma, especially in-cup. Much like Wal-Mart's "Great Value" tea, I only can recommend Lipton black tea if you're in a hurry or simply want tea badly enough, and little or nothing else of the sort is offered. If you simply ask for hot tea at an eatery and don't get Lipton, that's quite remarkable; you may wish to purchase a lottery ticket that day, for luck has found you.

Before I read the report, I would say it was in my cupboard. Lipton has a wonderful distinct taste--I once watched an informercial about how the Lipton tea tasters select their final tea blend.

Sure it's industrial grade black orange pekoe, nice and crisp and pairs well with creme and sugar. However it is NOT at all like Chinese red tea. (Black orange pekoe tastes nothing like Jasmine red tea and probably they use different subspecies of shrubs, just as there are many different types of grasses).

Whether I will buy a box for iced tea, maybe. However my digestion system is too sensitive (having taken radiation) to really drink too much of the tea, meaning I will get the runs.

This was attracted my attention to the Trouble Brewing report by GreenPeace in the first place.

I am new to tea. I am looking for good black breakfast tea. Being American, most of us drink coffee. I cannot drink coffee anymore, so I have switched to tea. Not many brands in my area. I bought Lipton because I recognized the brand. To me, it's ok. I put a touch of honey and cream in. Can anyone recommend a great breakfast tea? I like a full bodied flavorful black tea.

I am 67 years old and have been drinking tea since I was about 4 years old. Lipton Tea is my "go to" brand when I want a good, satisfying cup of tea. I have tried other brands but none has ever compared to Lipton for an everyday part of my diet. If you aren't really a tea drinker, how can you rate tea? Not every beer tastes the same nor does every coffee or cigarette. There is a great difference in tea brands and blends. Orange Pekoe and Pekoe cut black tea is my favorite. I don't put milk, sugar or anything but occasionally a little lemon in my tea.

I didn't give it really high numbers, but I do like this tea as a kind of "old standby," even though it is in fact a fairly new staple for me. And, to be honest, it probably won't be a staple once the box runs out.

As a coffee drinker most of my life and a sometimes obsessive tea drinker only in the last 10 years or so, I mostly started out with green teas and flavored teas like Earl Grey or something more spicy and exotic. Every time I would try this, I was really disappointed because I just didn't know how to make it.

This tea works the same way coffee works for me: I'm pretty particular about my coffee and if it's too strong or too weak or greasy, too much milk, etc. then it's not really all that pleasant for me, but I will gulp it down anyway because there's something coffee about it that I recognize and I have accepted as what I want.

This tea is exactly the same in exactly the same way. I even prefer it prepared the same way I like my coffee: strong, but not too strong and just a little milk. If I don't get it just right, it's too weak or too bitter.

The way I get it exactly how I want is to just look at the color. At home, I use a kettle to boil water, but at work we have a Keurig machine. At home, I use a light-colored mug and pour boiling water directly on the bag, bounce the bag up and down for a few seconds and when it's a nice darkish brown (15-20 seconds) I remove the bag, add a tiny drop of cream and stir. It should be a nice caramel color. At home, I usually drop an ice cube or 2 in to cool it down so it doesn't open all the pores in my teeth and stain them as much. It is also ready to drink much sooner. At work, I just use the keurig machine and let it sit for about 10 seconds before adding a tiny spot of milk and then just let it sit on my desk to cool with the bag still in the mug. It never gets bitter because I think the Keurig machine doesn't get the water nearly as hot.

The reason I realized I actually like this tea quite a bit as a regular coffee replacement is because I randomly bought a huge box from the corner deli once and then they got that same huge box at work. When I ran out of all my fancier teas at home, I just started using it more and more until I finally figured it out. Then, at work, I started using it instead of coffee and quite honestly I like it better than coffee most of the time now.

There is kind of a spiciness to it which seems weird. It doesn't seem like it should be there, but I taste it. It tastes flavored in some way. If I add a tiny bit of stevia, it really brings out the spiciness and it almost tastes like fall flavors (some relative of nutmeg and cinnamon or something).

This is my first review and probably the most elaborate one I'll ever do here. I don't know why, but a tea so common seemed to require a little advocacy. I'm enjoying a cup right now and would like everyone to be able to appreciate this.

It's good to have a bunch of this as backup and to know how to make it if it's the only tea available, but I wouldn't go out of my way to buy it over another black tea like Twinings Breakfast Blend or Stash Breakfast Blend (both much better).

Ah, Lipton: the tea ubiquitous within the fine dining institutions of my college campus. I tend to drink this when I'm in need of something strongly caffeinated but I just can't tolerate the thought of choking down more instant coffee crystals dissolved in lukewarm tap water from the bathroom down the hall from my lab.

What can I say? Even overworked lab rats need to have standards sometimes.

That said, I tend to make fun of Lipton a lot, but I really don't find their tea unpleasant. It's just that I don't find it to be a pleasant experience, either. I usually let this tea steep for no longer than a minute in boiling water, lest it take on an unpleasantly bitter taste, or else I prepare it as a cold-brew. Unfortunately, at its best it's still below average--though still a better experience than similarly low-grade coffee.